Maybe my badge should read: ‘Not a real celebrity’

Early this week two fifth-graders asked me for my autograph. How cool is that?

Mind you, this is the first time this has happened to me as a humble crime reporter. Let’s face it, this is not necessarily the most glamorous profession. We meet a lot of people, sure, but most of them are police officers, suspects on their way to jail or patients coughing up blood. And unlike TV reporters, we’re not exactly household personalities. The only thing you ever see of us is our names in print. We’re secret celebrities, you see. People usually smile pleasantly when we disclose where we work, and then we happily go back to anonymity.

So, really, I’m thinking the girls confused me with someone else. I’ve been told that without the glasses and the moustache I would look like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

Anyway, I was covering a traffic accident at Braun Road near Bandera Road and the students were taking pictures of the wrecked vehicle with their cell phones.

“Uh, you sure?” I asked them when they approached. “I’m just a reporter.”

They looked me in the eye and said, “Yes.”

Since I’ve never done this before, I pulled my notepad, ripped a page and penned a smudgy signature. They asked me to do it twice, a copy for each one.

I asked them if they wanted to be journalists (this ailing profession sure is going to need new blood with fresh ideas to revitalize it). One said she liked writing and the other said she liked taking pictures. The latter also said she wanted to be a vet.

“Then maybe you can work for National Geographic,” I said.

“OK, I’ll do that,” she said.

So after some amateur job counseling, I jumped into my car. As I drove away, I saw photographer-veterinarian girl holding the piece of paper with my ugly handwriting in her hand. I wondered if I should have written a positive, meaningful message for those two young impressionable minds like “Journalism Needs YOU!” or “Don’t forget to eat your veggies!”

Or maybe, “Girls, your parents seriously need to take you to some concerts to meet real celebrities!”